My fork poked at the waffles on my plate. The waffles I couldn't eat because my appetite was gone. When I woke up this morning my resentment towards Dad still boiled inside me. He made it even worse with these apology waffles. This is not how his waffles are supposed to be used.

Looking up from my breakfast I catch Dad peering over his newspaper at me. His brow furrowed as he frowned at my untouched food.

"I thought you would've grown out of that by now," he remarked. "You need to eat something."

Pushing my plate away from me, I glared at him, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because," he started, folding up the paper and setting it aside. "Keisha wanted to share the news. You would have known sooner if you weren't being so difficult."

"I don't like her," I spoke slowly to make sure he didn't miss a single syllable. "What's so difficult about that?"

"Mia," he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Did you cheat on mom?" I blurted out. The question had been burning at the back of my mind since Jasmine brought it up.

"Of course not," he replied. "Why would you think that?"

"You got remarried, like, two months after the divorce."

"I didn't-" he took a deep breath, exhaling before continuing. "Our marriage fell apart long before we decided to get a divorce."

"But you were in love, you should have fought to stay together."

"We did," he retorted. "We tried to work it out for months. We even tried marriage counseling."

I scoffed, "So, you just gave up?"

"There was nothing to give up on," he said solemnly. "We weren't in love anymore."

"How can you just fall out of love with someone?"

He silently thought about my question before he shrugged, "We grew apart. Wanted different things. It happens."

I sulked back into my chair, nothing he said made any sense to me. How can someone wake up on morning and no longer be in love with someone they've been with for so long? How could anyone voluntarily give up the comfort of their own little world and start all over again? The thought scared me to death. So many things could go wrong entering the unknown.

"Mia, I know the divorce was hard for you," he acknowledged. "But your mom and I are better for it. I have Keisha and your mom has Shawn. We're happier apart than we were in the last few years of our marriage."

"Wait," I looked up at him. "You know about Shawn?"

"Yeah," he chuckled. "You're mom and I still talk."

Of course. She'll talk to her ex-husband, but not her daughter.

"What could you two possibly talk about?"

His eyes narrowed as he ponders this, "You mostly," He replied nonchalantly and my eyes nearly popped out of my skull.

So, she talked about me, but not too me. That made perfect sense. Curiosity got the best of me and I had to ask, "What about me?"

He stole a piece of sausage from my plate before answering, "Well, recently she's mentioned that you've hanging around a boy." His brown eyes examined me intently and I broke under his stare, looking down at the patterned place mat on the table.

A burning blush crept up my neck as I thought about Calvin. He had to be the boy Mom told Dad about. Honestly, I didn't even realize that she noticed him around. Her random surge of parenting energy seemed to make sense now.

"So, there is a boy?" He probed, going in to the typical 'dad mode'.

My mind went back to last night and the conversation between Calvin and I. Was there a boy or did I completely ruin it with my uncontrollable need to lash out at anyone within close proximity when angry?

+++

It was the afternoon, the sun set high in the sky, as I greeted cousins, aunts and uncles. The back yard was set up with long fold out tables and chairs, two large canopies and a colorful bounce house for the younger kids. Dad has been manning the grill for hours grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, various varieties of kebabs and other meats. Everything smelled delicious and considering the fact that I hadn't eaten much of anything since yesterday, I was starving.

Unfortunately, like most family cook outs, people were arriving late and Dad insisted that wait for everyone to show up before eating. That didn't stop me from sneaking over to the food table to steal a shrimp kebab though.

"Mia."

Guess I wasn't discreet enough. Turning around I was face to face with Keisha. She switched out her sweat pants for a royal blue maxi dress, which I just noticed matched Dad's polo shirt. As much as I hated to admit it, the matching outfits were kind of cute.

It hasn't even been 24 hours and already I'm letting the fact that she's carrying my brother or sister soften me up. I don't let her know that though. Keeping my face void of any emotion I stared at her, hopefully with a look that says "go away".

"Stealing food?" She asked as a sly smile spread across her face. Looking over her shoulder before picking up on of the kebabs herself she adds, "I won't tell if you don't."

Did she think that this made us friends? How dense can this woman be? She knows very well how I feel towards her, yet she won't stop with nice, sugary, sweet attitude. It was getting annoying. My bored expression as I stared at her must have been faulty because she didn't back down.

"Your dad and I are making a baby name list," She stated, popping a bell pepper into her mouth. "Do you have and Ideas?"

"No," I said flatly, refusing to fall into this baby trap. Still, names popped into my head no matter how hard I tried to fight them back. Needing to get away from her before I fully succumbed to having an actual conversation with her, I started to walk away.

"I've had enough of this, Mia," She grabbed hold of my arm, pulling me back. "I know that this is a lot to take in and everything is happening so fast, but I love your father."

My eyes almost roll out of my head.

"Seeing your parents split up is hard, trust me I know," She says sympathetically. "But you're lucky because your parents are still civil with each other and they care so much about you."

She looked away, but not before I noticed the hurt in her eyes. A part of me felt guilty for the way I've been treating her. Mom and Dad were clearly over each other and here I was crying about wanting them back together, even if that meant they'd be unhappy. I was on a whole other level of selfish.

Keisha sucked in a deep breath, steading herself before continuing. "I'm not saying that we have to be best friends, I just don't want this tension between us. Especially not when the baby gets here."

Glancing over at Dad I realized that he had been watching us, an intense look on his face as he probably tried to figure out what we were talking about. Turning back to Keisha I nodded, "Okay," I said.

"Okay." She grinned and I couldn't help but return the smile.

+++

It was almost 10 o'clock when I got up to my room and collapsed on my bed. My stomach was full, my feet were throbbing and my arms were weak from holding baby cousins all day. Needless to say, I was beyond tired and couldn't wait to take a shower and go to bed. 

Everyone was starting to leave, so I snuck away. Mainly to get some peace and quiet, but also to avoid having to help clean up.

Pulling my phone from the pocket of my shorts I check my unread text messages. There's one from Derek that I refuse to read, a few from Alyssa freaking out about her sisters cake and one from Faye asking about my feelings towards Kenton.

Ever since that day Kenton and I talked at lunch Faye has been asking me about him. Wondering if I liked him and if I wanted her to set me up with him. It made me feel bad seeing her obsess about my dating life. She must be trying to distract herself from her broken heart.

Either way, I made it perfectly clear to her that I wasn't seeing anyone, nor was I interested. That last part might have been a lie since I got heart palpitations whenever I was near Calvin. I wasn't ready to admit it out loud though. Saying it would make it all too real, at least now I could still deny it.

My heart sank when I remembered our last conversation. What if he never wanted to speak to again? Looking down at my phone I debate if I should text him, but I couldn't think of anything to say.

Deciding this was a conversation that should be had in person, I picked myself up from the bed. The smell of barbecue sauce and burnt hot dogs came from me and it was evident that I was in need of a shower.

Grabbing something to sleep in from the drawers I went into the en suite to start my shower and think about my next encounter with Calvin.

//

Another update in less than a week?? What?? 

S/O to Camp NaNoWriMo for kicking my butt into gear! xD

So, what'd you think about the conversation between Mia & her dad? &  Mia agreeing to put her feud with Keisha aside? && Faye playing match maker?

~ Thanks SO much for reading ~

Please comment & vote!! <3